Sacre and Kaman had beef, found kinship

Remember in the preseason when Chris Kaman and Robert Sacre bought a cow together?

The relationship between the two big men started with beef, but by the end was all love.

While Sacre improved on all of his numbers from his rookie season in an increased role, the same could not be said for Kaman, who floundered under coach Mike D’Antoni and rarely played.

Still, Sacre referred to his friend as “legendary” after the Lakers season-ending win in San Antonio. He backed it up on Thursday.

“He is like Ron Burgundy,” Sacre said. “Chris Kaman is his own breed. I love Chris. He’s a unique individual and he brought a lot of character to this team. And it was fun. It was definitely fun for me. We went to a lot of dinners on the road, we went to go see a couple movies on the road. It wasn’t a date, though … I just wanted to clarify that.”

The most entertaining figure in the Lakers locker room behind Nick Young, Sacre basically held a comedy hour on his way out the door of the Lakers practice facility for the last time this season. As one of just three players with a guaranteed contract for next season, Sacre was spared the unending questions about free agency and his interest in returning to the Lakers.

Instead, Sacre said he had a positive exit meeting with Mike D’Antoni and General Manager Mitch Kupchak, but declined to get specific about what the tandem wants him to work on in the offseason.

“I’m not going to give you any of my secrets or what I’m going to do this offseason,” Sacre said, “for the fact that you don’t need that. You don’t need to know my secrets. This is why I’m going to get better.”

-- Wesley Johnson was asked what it was like to be around Hall of Famers such as Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash, even though the two were rarely healthy enough to play.

“It was cool just to pick their brains,” he said. “Especially Nash when he was batlting through his injuries, just to see how hard he was working.”

He said Bryant mostly worked with him on defense, working with him on specific matchups. Johnson said the famously intense Bryant keeps defensive tips for specific players in his cell phone.

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